Open water winter walleye

[ctom]

All the walleyes/saugers I have cleaned this fall have been males ( I don't knowingly keep female walleyes) and they have all had milt in them. I have caught fish with neither eggs or milt in them this time of year in the past but not many.

The milt producing glands in walleyes and sauger will be visible all year, but not swollen and leaking milt. And 2XL has brought up a good point. Fall/early winter run fish are generally the males. A few hens will get in there but most females will hang back until mid-winter before doing any major shift towards a dam. We don't start seeing any of the large hens until February on the big river except for any hens that were what you'd call resident fish.

[2XL]

Like Tom said, the milt is still solid this time of year and will be until the spawn starts.

I think the biggest reason most guys get into mostly males/smaller sized fish this time of year is because the bigger females and males don't inhabit the same areas most of the year. At least around here it seems that way. I think too many guys are happy hitting the same community spots everyone else does catching smaller fish hoping bigger fish will move in in time. That may work come the spring run (it's a low percentage tactic IMO) but I think a guy is better off getting out of his comfort zone and doing a little exploring for bigger fish VS sitting and hoping to luck into them. Don't get me wrong, catching a lot of fish is fun but IMO you need to change things up a bit ( location ) if you want a crack at bigger fish. None of the fish I have caught the last couple weeks have come from the classic community spots = deeper holes.  All of them were caught in spots that others wouldn't even consider fishing because they would rather fish memories vs changing things up by exploring new water. Fine with me. Happy boating !  LOL